Pakistan’s former ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani has admitted facilitating the stationing of American special operations and intelligence personnel on Pakistani soil and forging links that eventually allowed Washington to carry out the raid in Abbottabad to eliminate Osama bin Laden.

In an opinion piece for The Washington Post, Haqqani also indicated that while Islamabad was ‘officially kept out of the loop’, the Pakistan Peoples Party-led government was aware of both the developments.

Haqqani’s piece – titled “Yes, the Russian ambassador met Trump’s team. So? That’s what we diplomats do” – was aimed at illustrating that it is an established practice for envoys to meet with representatives for various political factions in the run-up to elections in the country they are stationed in.

However, in trying to justify the meeting of the Russian envoy in Washington with members of Donald Trump’s team, the former Pakistani envoy has raised questions over his role and that of the PPP in the May 2, 2011 raid.

“The relationships I forged with members of Obama’s campaign team led to closer cooperation between Pakistan and the US in fighting terrorism over the three and a half years I served as ambassador,” Haqqani wrote in the article. “These connections eventually enabled the US to discover and eliminate bin Laden without depending on Pakistan’s intelligence service or military,” he said. The former envoy added that the “friends I made from the Obama campaign were able to ask, three years later, as National Security Council officials, for help in stationing US Special Operations and intelligence personnel on the ground in Pakistan.”

“I brought the request directly to Pakistan’s civilian leaders, who approved. Although the US kept us officially out of the loop about the operation, these locally stationed Americans proved invaluable when Obama decided to send in Navy SEAL Team 6 without notifying Pakistan,” he wrote further.

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Reader Comments (16)

The man is too clever by half. Using the prism of the Russian ambassador, he is trying to endear himself in the eyes of the Trump administration and to claim that he was pivotal in the killing of OBL.Recommend

Hussain Haqqani has stated the obvious and it is for this candor that he is being chastised. What he did was no less criminal than handing over Bababer Airbase in the 1960s by Ayub Khan to the CIA operated intelligence gathering post and U2 spy flights over Soviet Union. What Haqqani has admitted is just as scathing as Musharraf handing over Shamsi and Shahbaz Airbases to CIA Special Activities Division for drone flights and missile attacks in the FATA area.

But unfortunately we will never get to hear that Ayub Khan or Musharraf are ever indicted for selling not only their souls but also our sovereignty because blaming them for their misdeeds would be against the interests of “Waqar.”Recommend

@Adnan Siddiqi – There is a difference between what Husain Haqqani did and what Ayub Khan and Musharraf did. In their case the country’s government national security and foreign policy objectives were implemented.

In this case, Pakistan’s former ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani, undermined his country. He put 1) his interest, 2) his political party’s interest before the interest of the state which he was under oath to represent. He broke his oath.

In fact he went further – he represented a foreign country’s interest. FYI – that’s treason.

What do you think USA government would do if they find out that the Trump administration did something similar in case of his potential contacts with Russia? Why do you think Donald Trump’s national security advisor, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn who was a registered Agent of Turkey, is also under investigation?Recommend

How many ambassadors whether civilian or retired personnel ( excepting Abida Hussain ) posted in America have come back to Pakistan. I wonder if they were serving Pakistan or their land of permanent residence (USA) Same is true for UK. Recommend